On-site Examinations Research Articles

Changes in pre-diabetes and diabetes prevalence and diabetes self-management behaviors across socioeconomic spectra in rural southwest China: 2013–2022

BackgroundThis study aimed to uncover the changing prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes as well as diabetes self-management behaviors across socioeconomic gradients in rural southwest China.MethodsA two-wave, community-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted. A total of 7,747 and 7,536 individuals aged ≥ 35 years, residing in rural southwest China, were selected using a three-stage stratified random sampling method. Demographic characteristics and self-management behaviors were collected through face-to-face interviews, and physical indicators were measured through on-site examinations. An individual socioeconomic position (SEP) index was constructed using principal component analysis based on three variables: education, annual household income, and access to medical services.ResultsIn 2022, the overall prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes (15.7% and 7.6%) were lower than in 2013 (18.3% and 8.2%) (P < 0.05). This decline was also observed in subgroups including women, those aged 45–54 years, those of Han ethnicity, those with a high educational level, those with a high annual household income, and those with good access to medical services and high SEP (P < 0.05). In contrast, higher rates were found among ethnic minorities, those with low annual household income, and those with low SEP. The overall rate of compliance with anti-diabetic medications or insulin injection was higher in 2022 (95.9%) compared to 2013 (76.5%), with the largest relative increase occurring among participants with a low level of education and income, poor access to medical services, and low SEP (P < 0.01). The proportion of individuals having taken measures to control diabetes was lower in 2022 (39.7%) compared to 2013 (53.3%) (P < 0.01). This lower rate was also observed among the subgroups categorized by sex, education, and income level, in the Han majority, and among participants with good access to medical services and high SEP (P < 0.05). Furthermore, while the overall rate of regular self-monitoring of blood glucose did not differ between the two survey years (41.8% and 44.7%, P > 0.05), a higher rate was uncovered among patients with low education level, low annual household income, poor access to medical services, and low SEP in 2022 compared to 2013 (P < 0.05).ConclusionsThe prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes, as well as the rate of taking measures to control diabetes, were lower among the rural Chinese adult population in 2022 compared with 2013. However, compliance with anti-diabetes medications or insulin injections was higher. Additionally, socioeconomic disparities are associated with these Changes.

Problems and Prospects of Social Insurance in India

The fair transfer of the risk of loss from one entity to another in exchange for a payment, known as a premium, is what is meant by insurance (NCAER). A type of risk management called insurance is used to protect or hedge against the possibility of an unforeseen and contingent loss. In the economy, the insurance industry serves as a risk manager, investment activity booster, financial market stabilizer, mobilizer of funds, and financial middleman. According to the Financial Stability Forum, insurance services are categorized into three major categories: social insurance, non-social insurance and reinsurance. The social insurance sector helps in providing risk cover, investment and tax planning for individuals; the non-social insurance industry provides a risk cover for assets. Under reinsurance, developing countries often find themselves in the position of being buyers of reinsurance (UNCTAD 2007). The development of the social insurance market is playing an increasingly substantial role within the insurance industry due to the existence of insurance-growth relationship with the increased share of the insurance sector in the financial sector (Beck and Webb, 2003). Social insurance is civilization’s partial solution to the problems that caused by death; which eliminates 'risk', substituting certainty for uncertainty and comes to the timely aid of the family in the unfortunate event of death of breadwinner. In short, social insurance is concerned with two hazards that stand across the life-path of every person: firstly, that of dying prematurely is leaving a dependent family to fend for itself, and secondly, that of living till old age without visible means of supports (LIC, website). A well-developed social insurance sector is a boon for economic development as it provides long term funds for infrastructure development at the same time strengthening the risk taking ability of a country. Social insurers are custodians and managers of substantial investments of individuals; and policy holders need to be confident that their insurer will be able to meet its promised liabilities in the event that claims are made under a policy Regulatory authorities therefore seek to ensure that the financial soundness and performance of social insurance companies is in sound condition. Insurance is a big opportunity in a country like India with a large population and 2 untapped potential. In this current scenario of growing customer base, one of the principal concerns underlying the regulation of the insurance companies is the need to protect the interest of and secure fair treatment to policyholders (Charumathi, 2011) The risk absorption role of insurers promotes financial stability in the financial markets and provides a “sense of peace” to economic entities. The business world without insurance is unsustainable since risky business may not have the capacity to retain all kinds of risks in this ever changing and uncertain global economy (Ahmed et al., 2010). Insurance companies’ ability to continue to cover risk in the economy hinges on their capacity to create profit or value for their shareholders. The economic significance and recently increasing importance of the insurance industry for financial stability requires for adoption of risk-based supervisions of its undertakings. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the regulatory body of the Indian insurance industry, has therefore intensified its supervision, on-site examinations and off-site surveillances. All of these regulatory measures are to ensure that the financial performance of insurance companies is in sound condition. Insurers’ financial performance is influenced by both internal and external factors. Whereas internal factors focus on an insurer’s-specific characteristics, the external factors concern both industry features and macroeconomic variables. The performance of insurance companies can also be appraised at the micro, meso and macro levels of the economy. The micro level refers to how firm-specific factors such as size, capital, efficiency, age, and ownership structure affect financial performance. The meso and macro levels refer to the influence of support-institutions and macroeconomic factors respectively. At the micro level, profit is the essential pre-requisite for the survival, growth and competitiveness of insurance firms and the cheapest source of funds (Buyinza et al., 2010). Without profits no insurer can attract outside capital to meet its set objectives in this ever changing and competitive globalized environment.

Association of height, foot length, and pubertal development in children aged 3-18: a cross-sectional survey in China.

This study aimed to analyze the growth patterns of height and foot length (FL) among Chinese children aged 3-18 and examine their associations with puberty development. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in September 2022 in Beijing. Data were collected through questionnaires and on-site physical examinations. The growth patterns and velocity of height and FL in different age groups were described, and their associations with puberty development were analyzed. From an age perspective, the peak FL growth occurred between 9 and 11 years (boys were 11 years and girls were 9 years), while the peak height growth occurred at 11 ~ 13 years for boys and 9 ~ 11 years for girls. Additionally, boys and girls reached 99.0% of their final FL at the ages of 14 and 13, respectively, while they reached 99.0% of their final height at the ages of 16 and 15, respectively. From the perspective of Tanner stage, the age of peak FL growth in boys coincided with the age of the G2 stage, while in girls it occurred slightly earlier than the mean age of the B2 stage. The peak height growth for both boys and girls occurred between Tanner stages 2 and 3. Boys and girls reach their peak FL growth at 11 and 9 years old, respectively, which were both 2 years earlier than their peak height growth. The peak FL growth occurred around the onset of puberty, while the peak height growth occurred between Tanner stages 2 and 3.

Screen Printed Electrodes: A Boon for Forensic Chemistry Analysis for Detection of Narcotics and Explosives

Abstract: Screen printing technology is a method of ink-based printing that utilizes a stencil mesh screen to create a visual pattern on a flat surface, such as plastic or silk. This process finds application in the production of screen-printed electrodes, which are utilized in electrochemical cells as part of voltammetric techniques. These electrodes offer advantages in terms of simplicity, portability, and ease of use compared to more intricate techniques. Various voltammetric methods are employed to analyze materials present in trace quantities, including drugs and explosives. By employing screen-printed electrodes in these electro-analytical techniques, it becomes possible to achieve straightforward, cost-effective, sensitive, and rapid detection of analytes with forensic significance. This highlights the significance of screen-printed electrodes in both onsite and laboratory forensic examinations.

Menelusuri Hadhanah: Pemeriksaan Mendalam atas Kasus Hak Asuh Anak di Pengadilan Agama

This paper reviews the practice of in-depth examination of child custody cases in the Religious Courts, focusing on the concept of Hadhanah. Hadhanah is an important principle in determining child custody decisions, where the best interests of the child take centre stage. The study identifies the examination process, including the involvement of the child in decision-making, as well as the role of experts and Witnesses in providing a detailed picture. Hadhanah inquiries highlight the complexity of resolving child custody struggles in the context of Islamic law. This research aims to find out what factors make Judges conduct on-site examinations related to child dispute cases. The method used is field research with a qualitative approach. Data was obtained using empirical approach and documentation. This research is expected to provide an in-depth understanding of the hadhanah deskente, and can serve as a guideline for educators, researchers, and stakeholders. The conclusion emphasises the importance of a holistic and sensitive approach to children's needs in the religious justice system.

EXaHM – Application Oriented, Digital EXamination System at Hochschule München

The COVID-19 pandemic put academic institutions around the world in the difficult position of suddenly having to organize many lectures and examinations over online channels only, due to students’ physical access to their campus buildings being restricted. While the search for possible solutions to this problem was often challenging, this situation also offered the unique opportunity to establish remote examination options, that might hold the potential to be continued even after the pandemic has hopefully ended. This report looks at how the Munich University of Applied Sciences (MUAS), one of the biggest universities of applied sciences in Germany, established its own solution for remote examination over the Internet. This report provides an overview of how MUAS developed its on-site competence- and application-oriented digital examination tool to work remotely during the pandemic, its general framework and experiences that were made during its inception. Included are descriptions of the technical setting of the solution, as well as some challenges that were had when implementing it and how those were resolved. As part of this research it was concluded, that support and administrative work for this kind of remote examination was much more intensive than for on-site digital examinations, but also lessened each subsequent semester. A well-organized support system makes it possible to offer remote digital examinations with good conditions regarding, for example, student equal opportunities and secure examination environments, although even now perfect conditions cannot be guaranteed. While not without its own deficiencies, MUAS new established system was lauded by many Bavarian educational facilities and is in the process of being deployed to other Bavarian universities. This paper serves to highlight a qualitative example of how e-learning approaches can be of use in the context of higher education examinations and hopefully provide ideas for others trying to establish their own similar solutions.

Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal auditing: a field study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal auditing as the pandemic forced individual internal auditors and audit teams to conduct the work remotely.Design/methodology/approachFive in-depth semi-structured interviews of internal audit experts that work in German retail and manufacturing industry were conducted between February and April 2021.FindingsThe authors find that the importance of audit technologies did not change significantly due to the pandemic, as audit technologies were already an integral part of internal audits. Interestingly, the transition to remote audits occurred with remarkable speed and efficiency. The presence of well-functioning information and communication technologies emerges as a critical facilitator for effective remote communication, collaboration and data exchange. However, audit technologies can only partially replace physical on-site examinations and human interaction. The main challenges of remote audits are related to the auditing of non-digitalized processes and the inherent limitations of auditee interviews and interactions.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors' interview approach does not allow to cover variations between industries and between countries. While internal audit experts provided notably consistent responses during the interviews, acknowledging that the sample size is very small is important.Practical implicationsThe COVID-19 pandemic serves as a catalyst for increased digitalization and technology adoption within the realm of internal auditing. A hybrid approach combining the benefits of on-site and remote audits is expected to prevail in the future.Originality/valueThe paper is among the first to document the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work of internal auditing using field-based research methods.

Seismic performance assessment and retrofitting proposal for a historic masonry school building (Bursa, Türkiye)

Seismic performance assessment and retrofitting proposal for a historic masonry school building (Bursa, Türkiye)

Diagnosis of Renibacterium salmoninarum infection in harvested Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) on the east coast of Canada: Clinical findings, sample collection methods and laboratory diagnostic tests.

Chronic subclinical infection with the aetiological agent of bacterial kidney disease (BKD), Renibacterium salmoninarum, presents challenges for the clinical management of disease in farmed salmonids and for prevalence estimation. Harvested salmon sampled at processing plants provide the opportunity to describe subclinical outcomes of BKD using gross necropsy observations and diagnostic test results in farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) populations that are apparently healthy (i.e. alive at harvest) but naturally exposed to R. salmoninarum infection. Sampling of farmed salmon (Population A, n=124 and Population B, n=160) was performed immediately post-slaughter as fish were being processed at a plant in New Brunswick, Canada. Populations were selected based on planned harvests from sites with histories of recent exposure events related to clinical BKD as evidenced by the site veterinarian's diagnosis of mortality attributable to BKD: One site (Pop A) had recently increasing mortalities attributed to BKD, and the other site (Pop B) had ongoing low-level mortalities with BKD pathology. As expected with the different exposure histories, Pop A had a higher percentage (57.2%) of R. salmoninarum culture-positive kidney samples compared with similar fish samples in Pop B (17.5%). Diagnosis of R. salmoninarum by gross granulomatous lesions in internal visceral organs, bacterial culture and identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) using different swab transport methods, and molecular detection methods (quantitative PCR, qPCR) were compared. Agreement of culture-positive percentages at the sample level was moderate (kappa: 0.61-0.75) among specimens collected using different kidney sampling methods in Pop A and Pop B. The highest proportion of R. salmoninarum-positive cultures occurred when kidney tissues were transported to the laboratory and inoculated directly onto agar using a swab (94% of cultures from Pop A and 82% from Pop B when fish were positive by any culture method). Fish with cumulative lesion scores (severity of granulomatous lesions in 3 different visceral organs) of >4 were all culture positive, and when compared with non-lesioned fish, had substantially higher odds of being culture positive: Pop A: odds ratio (OR)=73, 95% confidence interval (CI) (7.91, 680.8); Pop B: OR=66, 95% CI (6.12, 720.7). Our study found that onsite postmortem examinations with severity scores of gross granulomatous lesions were predictive of positive culture results for R. salmoninarum, and they were a useful proxy for assessing prevalence in apparently healthy populations with subclinical infection.

Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension and their risk factors in Shaanxi Province in 2004–18

To investigate trends in the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension and their demographic determinants in Shaanxi Province. Six successive cross-sectional surveys on non-communicable chronic diseases and their risk factors were conducted between 2004 and 2018 in Shaanxi. Complex multistage stratified sampling was adopted to select participants. The information was collected through face-to-face interviews and on-site health examinations. Changes in hypertension prevalence and its management across survey years were estimated. Demographics associated with hypertension prevalence and its management was explored by multivariable logistic regression using pooled data from 2004 to 2018. The prevalence of hypertension increased from 16.71% in 2004 to 31.96% in 2018 with an estimated increase of 1.09% (95% CI 0.31–1.87) per year. However, the rate of awareness, treatment and control among these with hypertension was unexpectedly low and there were no significant change from 2004 to 2018. The corresponding changes were − 0.08% (95% CI − 0.85–0.69) per year for awareness, − 0.06% (95% CI − 1.11–1.00) per year for treatment, and − 0.23% (95% CI − 0.53–0.07) per year for control, respectively. Sensitivity analysis showed the same trend. Adults who were old, male, divorced/Widowed/Separated, retired were more likely to develop hypertension. Among these with hypertension, those who were more educated and retired were more likely to manage their hypertension compared with their counterparts. The overall hypertension prevalence from 2004 to 2018 increased rapidly, while awareness, treatment and control of hypertension remained unexpectedly low. This suggested urgent intervention should be implemented to improve hypertension control in Shaanxi Province.

Post-restoration seismic performance assessment of a historic hypostyle mosque in Anatolia (13th century AD)

Post-restoration seismic performance assessment of a historic hypostyle mosque in Anatolia (13th century AD)

일본의 총력전 체제와 조선에 대한 방공(防共)정책

This research examines Japan's total war system during the war from the aspect of anti-communist policy. Among them, Japan judged that the threat of the Communist Party was more serious in Korea than in Japan, and analyzed that it implemented an anti-communist policy in Korea that combined the judicial Peace Preservation Law and the cultural Korean Anti-Communist Association. The Soviet Revolution of 1917 had a great impact on the Western nations, and in 1920, it became a fashion in Europe and the United States to enact security legislation in order to prevent forces that would cooperate with the Soviet Union and promote domestic revolutionary movements. Japan enacted the Radical Social Movement Control Law in the early 1920s, and in 1925 it enacted the Peace Preservation Law. And Japan tried to deal with communism not only with the Soviet-Japanese Basic Treaty. This Peace Preservation Law was applied to suppress nationalist and socialist-affiliated independence movements in Korea. In Korea, not only communism, but also national and independence movements had to be suppressed and cracked down, so the Peace Preservation Law was applied to all cases.&#x0D; Also, in the 1930s, Japan began to feel the effects of the Great Depression, and as a result, the labor movement and the peasant movement grew to an unprecedented scale. Then, in 1936, he submitted a bill to revise the Peace Preservation Law and passed the ‘Thought Criminal Probation Law’. In 1938, Japan began to advocate the need for a complete revision of the Peace Preservation Law, mainly through on-site ideological examinations. This is because Japan recognized that maintaining security in the rear was the most important issue in the process of developing a total war system following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Such demands resulted in a complete revision of the Peace Preservation Law in 1941. At that time, Japan had an overwhelming number of cases of applying the Peace Preservation Law in Korea compared to other colonies. This was due to the perception of the Japanese authorities that the geographical and social conditions of Korea were more influenced by communism than Japan. In addition to this, on August 15, 1938, the Korean Anti-Communist Association was established to thoroughly eradicate communist ideology, and carried out anti-communist education through various projects. In this way, Japan tried to prevent the spread of communism to Korea under the total war system during the war through the Peace Preservation Law and the Korean Anti-Communist Association.

Core Needle Biopsy in the Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules.

Core needle biopsy (CNB) is a relatively new technique for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules, and there are currently no large clinical series available. CNB results from 3000 cases are presented in this article. A spring-loaded 20-gauge needle was used for CNB under local anesthesia and ultrasonography guidance for 3000 patients with nodular goiter (584 males, 2416 females, mean age: 48.5). One physician performed all biopsy procedures without conducting on-site pathological examinations. There were non-diagnostic 22 (.7%), benign 2620 (87.4%), atypia of undetermined significance and/or, follicular lesion of undetermined significance 90 (3%), follicular neoplasms and/or suspicious for follicular neoplasm 53 (1.7%), suspicious for malignancy 160 (5.4%), and malignant 55 (1.8%) cases. The CNB procedure was repeated in 19 non-diagnostic cases, and 17 of these patients were benign and two had malignancy. Thyroidectomy was performed on patients who had malign CNB results. All final pathology reports, except for one, were malignant for the patients who had malignant CNB results. The specificity and the sensitivity of CNB were found to be 99.9% and 100%, respectively. There were no serious complications. In thyroid nodules, core needle biopsy is a highly sensitive, specific, and reliable method that could be performed by a single physician. It does not require on-site pathological analysis and has a low incidence of complications and non-diagnostic rates.

A new ground control measure for double-use entries in underground coal mines

A new ground control measure for double-use entries in underground coal mines

A Novel Concentrated, Interdisciplinary Group Rehabilitation Program for Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Protocol for a Nonrandomized Clinical Intervention Study.

Pulmonary rehabilitation has been demonstrated to be a highly effective treatment for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, its availability is scarce worldwide, and new and innovative rehabilitation models are highly warranted. Recently, the group behind the present study published a protocol describing a novel concentrated, interdisciplinary group rehabilitation program for patients with chronic illnesses. The current paper describes an extension of this protocol to patients with COPD. The objective of this study is to explore the acceptability of concentrated, interdisciplinary group pulmonary rehabilitation for patients with COPD. The intervention is expected to improve functional status and be highly acceptable to patients. This study will include 50 patients aged over 40 years who fulfill the diagnostic criteria for COPD: a forced expiratory volume at the first second (FEV1) <80% of expected and a FEV1/forced vital capacity ratio below the lower limit of normal according to the Global Lung Function Initiative. An interdisciplinary team consisting of physicians, physiotherapists, psychologists, pharmacists, clinical nutritionists, and nurses will deliver the treatment to groups of 6 to 10 patients over 3 to 4 consecutive days with a 12-month follow-up. The intervention is divided into three distinct phases: (1) pretreatment preparation for change, (2) concentrated rehabilitation, where the patient is coached to focus on making health-promoting microchoices, and (3) integration of the changes into everyday living, aided by digital follow-up and 2 on-site clinical examinations. Statistical significance will be set at α=.05. The recruitment period will last from April 2022 until June 2023. If successful, this highly novel rehabilitation format might change the way we deliver care for patients with COPD, leading to substantial societal and socioeconomic gains. The study will expand knowledge on the concentrated treatment format as a rehabilitation model for people with COPD. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05234281; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05234281. PRR1-10.2196/40700.

Ocular health among industrial workers: a prevalence study of foreign body injury, refractive error, dry eye, pterygium and pingueculae.

Workplaces play a critical role in developing ocular diseases, owing to the risk of accidents. This study aimed to evaluate the ocular health of industrial workers by determining the prevalence of foreign body injury, refractive error, dry eye, and pterygium/pingueculae, as well as the factors influencing these diseases. This study involved on-site examinations of workers from an industrial area hosting marble processing factories and metal sectors. Data such as refractive error, foreign body injury-related corneal nephelium, pterygium/pingueculae presence, and Schirmer test-assisted dry eye evaluation were all collected. The average age of workers was 35.78±10.05 years, with a female-to-male ratio of 20:220. The majority of workers had completed primary school (56.3%), smoked >1 cigarette/day (57.6%), and did not use any assistive devices for bodily functions (88.3%). On average, working hours/week were 55.07±8.79, and working years were 5.99±7.00. Dry eyes were found in 31 (22%), and 35 (34%) marble and metal workers, respectively (p=0.042). 11 (7.9%) marble workers and 29 (28%) metal workers had foreign body ocular injury-related corneal nephelium (p=0.0001). Furthermore, pterygium/pingueculae were revealed in 17 marble workers (12.3%) and three metal workers (3%) (p=0.009). Ocular health is essential, and routine ocular health screening in industrial workers, as well as workplace safety measures, should be implemented to prevent potential occupational accidents.

Artificial intelligence-assisted remote detection of ST-elevation myocardial infarction using a mini-12-lead electrocardiogram device in prehospital ambulance care.

ObjectiveTo implement an all-day online artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted detection of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) by prehospital 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) to facilitate patient triage for timely reperfusion therapy.MethodsThe proposed AI model combines a convolutional neural network and long short-term memory (CNN-LSTM) to predict STEMI on prehospital 12-lead ECGs obtained from mini-12-lead ECG devices equipped in ambulance vehicles in Central Taiwan. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) from the 14 AI-implemented fire stations performed the on-site 12-lead ECG examinations using the mini portable device. The 12-lead ECG signals were transmitted to the AI center of China Medical University Hospital to classify the recordings as “STEMI” or “Not STEMI”. In 11 non-AI fire stations, the ECG data were transmitted to a secure network and read by available on-line emergency physicians. The response time was defined as the time interval between the ECG transmission and ECG interpretation feedback.ResultsBetween July 17, 2021, and March 26, 2022, the AI model classified 362 prehospital 12-lead ECGs obtained from 275 consecutive patients who had called the 119 dispatch centers of fire stations in Central Taiwan for symptoms of chest pain or shortness of breath. The AI's response time to the EMTs in ambulance vehicles was 37.2 ± 11.3 s, which was shorter than the online physicians' response time from 11 other fire stations with no AI implementation (113.2 ± 369.4 s, P < 0.001) after analyzing another set of 335 prehospital 12-lead ECGs. The evaluation metrics including accuracy, precision, specificity, recall, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and F1 score to assess the overall AI performance in the remote detection of STEMI were 0.992, 0.889, 0.994, 0.941, 0.997, and 0.914, respectively. During the study period, the AI model promptly identified 10 STEMI patients who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) with a median contact-to-door time of 18.5 (IQR: 16–20.8) minutes.ConclusionImplementation of an all-day real-time AI-assisted remote detection of STEMI on prehospital 12-lead ECGs in the field is feasible with a high diagnostic accuracy rate. This approach may help minimize preventable delays in contact-to-treatment times for STEMI patients who require PPCI.

KUYUMCULUKTA DÖKÜM TEKNİĞİ (KAYIP MUM TEKNİĞİ) İLE YAPILAN ÜRÜNÜN ÜRETİM AŞAMALARI

Kuyumculuk sanatında seri üretim yapmamızı sağlayan döküm tekniği(kayıp mum tekniği) ve bu teknikle üretimi gerçekleştirilen ürünün yapım aşamaları bu çalışmada ele alınmıştır. Araştırmanın amacını; kuyumculuk döküm tekniğinin tarihçesi, kuyumculuk döküm tekniği ile üretim yaparken uygulanan aşamalar, kullanılan araç gereçlerin neler olduğu oluşturmaktadır. Ayrıca döküm tekniği ile üretilmiş takılarda kullanılan malzemeler, motifler ve bezeme türleri gözlem formu ile incelenmiştir. Döküm tekniği uygulama aşamaları, döküm yaparken kullanılan malzemeler ve yöntemler hakkında bilgi, döküm yapan bir atölyede ustalarla görüşme yöntemi uygulanarak, yerinde yapılan gözlem ve incelemelerle sağlanmıştır. Bu gözlem ve incelemeler fotoğraf ve video çekilerek belgelenmiş, dijital ve basılı kaynak araştırmaları ile bilgi desteklenmiştir. Döküm tekniğinde; yapılmak istenilen modelin mumdan ya da reçine malzemeden modelinin oluşturulması, sonra bu modelin bir alçı ile kaplanması, alçının donup mum model etrafında kalıplaşması, kalıbın ısıtılması ile mum modelin erimesi ve kaybolması ilk işlem basamaklarıdır. Bu aşamada mumun eriyerek kaybolmasından dolayı tekniğe kayıp mum tekniği de denilmektedir. Döküm tekniği kuyumculuk alanında ticarette rekabet açısından seri üretimi sağlayarak zamandan ve masraftan tasarruf sağlandığı için alanla ilgili önemli bir tekniktir. Bir tasarımdan istenilen sayıda kısa bir sürede, modelde hiçbir değişiklik olmadan ve aynı anda üretebilmek tek tek elle üretimde mümkün değildir. Döküm tekniğinin bu kolaylığı sağladığı görülmektedir.

Online Examinations in the State Universities of Sri Lanka: Perceptions of Examiners and Students

Sri Lanka’s educational system has negatively been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Especially, drastic changes in the regular pattern of learning and evaluation have serious impacts on undergraduates and lecturers in Sri Lankan universities. The aim of this study is to explore the state university undergraduates’ and the test administrators’ perceptions of online examinations, thereby understanding the challenges and issues of online assessments. To this end, a qualitative investigation was undertaken with forty undergraduates of four government universities and seven lecturers of two universities in Sri Lanka. The study used questionnaires to gather data from the undergraduates and interviews with lecturers. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. Ninety percent of the undergraduates and university lecturers reported that online evaluation has become ineffective due to their lack of expertise in the learning management systems and inadequate knowledge of using digitized internet-assisted platforms. Moreover, under-graduates’ economical, technical and personal issues have also hindered the effectiveness of online evaluation. Since the online examinations could not evaluate undergraduates’ learning outcomes accurately as onsite examinations, the results of online examinations cannot be considered valid and reliable. The current study has implications for the university undergraduates, test administrators, and university management.

Evaluation of Adaptive Reuse in the Context of Sustainability: Cases from Kastamonu, Türkiye

Changes in today's living and comfort conditions negatively affect the use of historical buildings in accordance with their original functions, and as a result, these buildings can become idle. It is very important to preserve and maintain the original identities of historical buildings, as they carry the accumulation of the period in which they were built, which is an important element of the urban identity. With the adaptive reuse method, historical buildings that have lost their original functions are given a function again, these structures are revived, and their sustainability is ensured. This study uses the survey data of five historical khans in Kastamonu to reveal the success of adaptive reuse practices and their contribution to the sustainability of the historical environment. It includes analyzes made in the sample area, on-site examinations and observations, archive and literature review. The research shows that some of the adaptive reuses are made without considering the spatial and structural features of the existing structures and that the applications are not suitable for the material and color texture of the structures. For this reason, adaptive reuse studies should be well analyzed and implemented by authorized institutions and organizations both in the project and restoration stages. The study is important in terms of determining criteria for evaluating adaptive reuse in terms of international standards and evaluating adaptive reuse applications in Kastamonu historical city center within the framework of these criteria and emphasizing the problems.